The present invention generally relates to aircraft armament apparatus and associated methods and, in a preferred embodiment thereof, more particularly relates to a specially designed support structure and associated methods operative to mount weaponry, such as missiles or torpedoes, on the underside of a helicopter or other type of aircraft.
As representatively illustrated in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,187,318 to Sanderson et al, an advantageous method of mounting weaponry, such as machine guns and rocket launchers, on a helicopter (or other type of aircraft) incorporates an elongated support plank member that is longitudinally extended transversely through the cabin area of the helicopter, with a central portion of the plank being anchored to the cabin area floor and outer end portions of the plank projecting outwardly beyond opposite sides of the helicopter. The selected weaponry is supported on the undersides of these outwardly projecting plank end portions.
One of the factors that must be considered when mounting weaponry in positions substantially offset from the opposite sides of the helicopter in this manner is the necessity of maintaining the overall lateral center of gravity of the aircraft within acceptable design limits. For example, the mounting of a single heavy weapon on only one of the outboard plank tip locations could offset the aircraft's resulting lateral center of gravity an unacceptable distance toward such single heavy weapon.
When machine guns, such as 7.62 mm "mini" guns and .50 caliber machine guns, and multi-tube rocket launchers are mounted on the outwardly projecting plank ends, this lateral center of gravity offset problem does not arise for several reasons. For example, this type of weaponry is designed to stay on the plank during flight and may be arranged on the outer plank sections such that the overall weaponry weight load is substantially balanced from side-to-side or at least does not shift the helicopter's lateral center of gravity to an unacceptable degree. Additionally, even though these weapons are supported at substantial outboard distances from the helicopter's opposite sides, they relatively light in weight--a factor which, of course, lessens the degree to which they might undesirably shift the lateral center of gravity of the helicopter in unbalanced side-to-side plank mounted weaponry weight distributions on the helicopter.
As opposed to machine guns, plank mounted multi-tube rocket launchers pose a slightly different weight problem since as a launcher begins to launch its rockets its plank-carried weight is correspondingly diminished. Accordingly, if multi-tube rocket launchers are mounted on the opposite outer ends of a given support plank, and only one launcher is fired, a resulting side-to-side weight imbalance is imparted to the helicopter. To alleviate this potential problem, it is common practice to synchronize the firing of these rocket launchers on opposite ends of the support plank so that their overall remaining weights are substantially equalized. Even if this cannot be done for some reason, the lateral center of gravity design limits of the helicopter tend not to be exceeded due to the relatively light weights of these weapons.
For a variety of applications, it has been become desirable to mount other types of weapons on a helicopter (or other type of aircraft) which (1) are considerably heavier than the described plank-mounted machine guns and rocket launchers, and (2) are designed to be utilized by dropping them from the helicopter as opposed to remaining on the helicopter after firing. Two of these types of weapons are self-guiding missiles and torpedoes.
Because these types of weapons are considerably heavier than the typical plank-mounted machine guns and multi-tube rocket launchers, and are designed to be dropped from the helicopter as opposed to remaining thereon after use, it has proven to be quite difficult to incorporate these systems in a plank-based weaponry support system without making complex modifications to the plank structure or having to undertake difficult weight shifting procedures within the helicopter or other type of aircraft to compensate for the sudden off-centerline weight reduction when the weapon is abruptly dropped from the helicopter.
Due to these and other difficulties in adapting this type of heavier, droppable weaponry to a plank-based weaponry support system, a need exists for an alternate type of support system for this general type of weaponry. It is to this need that the present invention is directed.